DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9187#0200
i58
ATHENS AND GREECE. PORTRAITS
a work basket, such as we have already observed placed under
the so-called Penelope's seat. With both hands Mynno twists
her thread on a distaff, which is visible immediately under her
left arm. The form of the stele indicates the fifth century; and
it is noteworthy that the art of the time had not yet mastered
the problem of presenting the breast in true profile: while
Mynno's face is turned to the right, her bosom appears to
be turned rather towards the spectator, and even the further
knee is represented with some clumsiness.
Beside these simple and characteristic portraits of seated
women we must place a standing figure. The stele bears
the name of Amphotto, and comes from Thebes (PI. XVII).
There is here, as in many Boeotian monuments, a pleasing
absence of convention. The dress of Amphotto is arranged
in an unusual manner; her hair streams down her back. She
seems at first sight quite an ordinary mortal; yet there are
features in the representation which belong to another sphere.
On the girl's head is a tall circular crown, of the kind called
by archaeologists the polus, which is a distinguishing mark of
goddesses in early art. In her hands also are perhaps a flower
(represented in painting and so lost) and a fruit, which are
the characteristic offerings to the dead, and remind us of the
Lycian and Spartan monuments of the cultus of heroes.
The Amphotto stele belongs to the middle of the fifth
century. Of the same age is an interesting slab at the British
Museum l, on which is depicted a woman seated, also wearing
the polus. She holds in one hand a leaf-shaped fan, of the
same kind which the statuettes of Tanagra commonly hold ;
and in the other hand a cup from which a serpent feeds.
The serpent here takes us still nearer to the ideas which
gave rise to the Spartan stelae.
A class of reliefs must not be omitted which represents
1 Br. Mm. Cat. of Marbles, No. 721 ; Mus. Marb. ix. pi. 38.
ATHENS AND GREECE. PORTRAITS
a work basket, such as we have already observed placed under
the so-called Penelope's seat. With both hands Mynno twists
her thread on a distaff, which is visible immediately under her
left arm. The form of the stele indicates the fifth century; and
it is noteworthy that the art of the time had not yet mastered
the problem of presenting the breast in true profile: while
Mynno's face is turned to the right, her bosom appears to
be turned rather towards the spectator, and even the further
knee is represented with some clumsiness.
Beside these simple and characteristic portraits of seated
women we must place a standing figure. The stele bears
the name of Amphotto, and comes from Thebes (PI. XVII).
There is here, as in many Boeotian monuments, a pleasing
absence of convention. The dress of Amphotto is arranged
in an unusual manner; her hair streams down her back. She
seems at first sight quite an ordinary mortal; yet there are
features in the representation which belong to another sphere.
On the girl's head is a tall circular crown, of the kind called
by archaeologists the polus, which is a distinguishing mark of
goddesses in early art. In her hands also are perhaps a flower
(represented in painting and so lost) and a fruit, which are
the characteristic offerings to the dead, and remind us of the
Lycian and Spartan monuments of the cultus of heroes.
The Amphotto stele belongs to the middle of the fifth
century. Of the same age is an interesting slab at the British
Museum l, on which is depicted a woman seated, also wearing
the polus. She holds in one hand a leaf-shaped fan, of the
same kind which the statuettes of Tanagra commonly hold ;
and in the other hand a cup from which a serpent feeds.
The serpent here takes us still nearer to the ideas which
gave rise to the Spartan stelae.
A class of reliefs must not be omitted which represents
1 Br. Mm. Cat. of Marbles, No. 721 ; Mus. Marb. ix. pi. 38.